Abstract

BackgroundPeriodontal probing is one of the basic clinical oral examination procedures. It is carried out to assess the severity of gingival and periodontal disease. The experience of pain during probing may discourage patients. So, this study was conducted to estimate the pain perception and dental anxiety experienced during periodontal probing in patients visiting the community oral health programmes of B. P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences (BPKIHS).MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted among 100 participants of community oral health programmes of BPKIHS. Demographic profile, WHO modified Community Periodontal Index (CPI) 2013, Pain perception via Visual Analogue Scale (VAS Scores) and Short Version of Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) Self-evaluation Questionnaire (Y-6 item) were assessed. Mean ± SD and Spearman correlation for pain and anxiety were computed.ResultsOnly 10% of the study participants had healthy gingiva and 12% had periodontal pockets. Pain perception and dental anxiety was present in the participants. The participants experienced very little pain (6.75 ± 10.65) during periodontal probing. The overall anxiety score was 13.37 ± 1.81. There was a very weak correlation between the VAS Scores and the anxiety scores of the participants.ConclusionThis study concludes that pain perception and anxiety are low during periodontal probing. There was no correlation between bleeding on probing with pain and anxiety among the people visiting community oral health programmes of BPKIHS.

Highlights

  • Periodontal probing is one of the basic clinical oral examination procedures

  • With an assumption that the pain perception and dental anxiety increases with periodontal probing, this study aims to assess the pain perception and dental anxiety during periodontal probing in patients visiting the community oral health programmes of B

  • Ethical approval for the study was obtained from the Institutional Review Committee, BPKIHS, Dharan

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Summary

Introduction

Periodontal probing is one of the basic clinical oral examination procedures. It is carried out to assess the severity of gingival and periodontal disease. The experience of pain during probing may discourage patients. This study was conducted to estimate the pain perception and dental anxiety experienced during periodontal probing in patients visiting the community oral health programmes of B. Periodontal probing is used to measure clinical parameters like bleeding on probing, probing depth, clinical attachment level (CAL) and so on This gives us an idea regarding the disease severity of periodontal structure. The experiences of pain during probing and scaling may discourage patients who do not have periodontitis. The individual characteristics such as age, smoking and oral health status effects patients’ pain perception and dental anxiety. Extreme pain experience after dental work is amongst the most common distressing life experiences, and has seen to trigger psychological trauma and a persistent fear of the dentist among patients [7]

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